


I'll Raise my Sword for You

by HorseCrazyWriter76



Series: Experiment 2318 Endings [4]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-29
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:22:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22457923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HorseCrazyWriter76/pseuds/HorseCrazyWriter76
Summary: Where Roman escaped first.This is an alternate ending to a fic titled Experiment 2318. It will not make sense if you do not read at least through chapter 17.
Series: Experiment 2318 Endings [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1569304
Comments: 22
Kudos: 10





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Brent is the villain character and Heron is the hero character from the short videos. If there are already names for them I don't know them(I'm guessing there are and I just haven't heard them).
> 
> Slight Alterations to the Main Storyline:  
> -Roman is awake during Logan's escape attempt  
> 

Rose laid awake in the darkness. Dandelion was curled up next to him, snoring and moving a little in his sleep. Alium was out in the dark somewhere, and Zero was somewhere farther out in the darkness. He could hear Patty snuffling a little at her hay in the darkness, too. Rose rolled over as if that would help him get to sleep. He wondered if Alium was asleep yet. Usually Dandelion fell asleep the quickest and it was a tossup between Rose and Alium about who would fall asleep next.

He wondered why they were always awake. Maybe he would ask Zero about it.

Rose knew the answer to whether or not he would ask Zero was no before the thought even crossed his mind.

He sat up just to do something besides lay there. Sleep was far off from his mind. He could barely make out an outline of a person sitting on the bed. Alium was awake, too, then. Even as the thought formed Alium stood up and picked something up, then slipped out the door.

_What’s he doing? Is he Zero’s spy?_ Rose slid to his feet before he really knew what he was doing and he followed Alium. He saw Alium crack open a door, then run away, a pencil clattering to the ground far too loudly. Rose froze against the wall. Had Alium noticed him and alerted Zero? He carefully peeked through the cracked door. Zero stirred slightly inside. Rose sighed slightly and picked up the pencil, his hand brushing against a piece of paper in his hunt. He squinted at the hurried scribbles. It was observations about the hallway and speculations on escape routes.

_They’re not working together. I can go back._

Rose lifted a foot to go back to the room, but the door was pushed open, nearly flattening him against the wall. No going back now. He sprinted in the opposite direction. He would have to come back and rescue Dandelion later. He was making far too much noise, but he ignored it in favor of jumping all the stairs in one go, miscalculating the jump and rolling on to the floor, his ankle and ears ringing. He pushed himself on farther, hoping his tiny headstart would hold out-

Out in to a night glittering with stars far above his head and dropped evenly in to the more immediate surroundings. The nearby stars were amazing, but he couldn’t imagine anyone writing poems about them. They were yellow and square and predictable and-

And he was running from Zero. He felt a hand on his back and he flailed behind him while trying to move forward, somehow managing to get his loose shirt off and keep running. The warm night air felt wonderful, and he would have stopped to marvel at it if he hadn’t been running-

Running straight in to a man’s chest. Rose’s momentum carried them both in to a fall. Rose hissed, as his knee scrapped by concrete. Rose stared down at the man. He didn’t wear glasses: Rose wasn’t right then, either, he had forgotten them when he followed Alium. Maybe he had contacts on, but the idea still seemed strange to Rose.

“Uh, kid? Are you going to get off of me?”

“Thorry!” Rose said, scrambling off of him. The man got up slowly.

“You can run pretty fast: I barely saw you coming at me.”

“Thank you!” Rose replied. He wasn’t exactly sure it was a compliment, but figured it was the best response.

“Were you running from something?”

“The dragon witch!” The words tumbled from Rose’s mouth before he could put together a thought, “I mean-no, just, ugh, a perthon. A normal if weird and mean perthon.”

“Say, where are your parents?”

“I don’t have any.”

“What’s your name?”

“Red! Who are you?”

“Brent, uh, hold on,” the man said. Rose watched as he pulled out a small rectangle.

“Hey, Heron...no...just the car: no katana...yeah, there’s a kid, name’s Red...no parents...ran in to me...yeah...coffee shop...shut up, no...I said no katana!” Brent seemed to be in a significantly better mood after the phone call, “My husband’s going to come pick us up, if that’s chill?”

“Yeah!”

“You can crash at our place then we’re going to the police to get you back home.”

Red’s eyes widened slightly, “Don’t make me go back.”

“What do you expect me to do, kidnap you?”

“Yeth pleath!”

“It can’t be that bad, can it?”

“He’th the meaneth perthon there. I’m only going to go back to break out my thibling.”

Red stumbled back as something moved next to him. He threw himself between Brent and the thing, “Don’t worry, I’ll save you!” He ran up and kicked it, but it didn’t give. So it was that type of enemy, was it?

“Kid, Red, you have been in a car before, right?”

There was a hissing sound and the face of another man appeared in the side.

“Did they just kick the car?” Brent shrugged, and the man got out, bringing a sword with him.

“Heron! I said no katana!”

“I’ll have you know I brought the shortsword.”

“Royal pain.”

“Gloomy guts.”

Red stared at the sword in the man’s hands, “Can I hold it?”

The man turned around in surprise, “Uh, okay, but be careful. Don’t drop it or cut yourself.”

Red took the sword with both hands and stood facing the car, holding it up to strike.

“We’re adopting him, aren’t we?” Two voices chorused as one.


	2. Chapter 2

“Good morning, Red.”

Rose grumbled out a protest at Alium’s hand on his shoulder, burrowing deeper in to the covers.

“Come on, you need to eat breakfast.”

“I’m up,” he mumbled in to the pillow. The hand went away, and Rose drifted back towards sleep.

“Red, you’re worse than Brent and that’s saying something.”

The unfamiliar name finally woke Rose up enough to push himself in to a sitting position and squint at the person who brought an end to his sleep. He recognized Heron and brightened: he was out!

“Where’s breakfast?”

“The kitchen.”

Rose swung out of bed and ran past Heron to the kitchen. He hadn’t seen much of the building, but he remembered the room with chairs that looked perfect to sink in to and the kitchen looking in to it. He looked up over the counter to where Brent was doing something that smelled awesome. He pulled himself up on to the surface.

“Red, get off of the counter,” Brent snorted, “I swear you’re worse than Heron.”

“Now both of you have said I’m worse than the other. What does that mean?” Rose huffed, staying where he was.

“It means get off of the counter,” Brent replied, “Want to make a pancake with stuff inside?”

“How do you do that?” Rose asked, scrambling off of the counter and running around to Brent.

“You just put it in to the batter; you can help. What do you want to put in it?”

“I don’t know,” Rose replied. He tried to think of things that went in pancakes, but his mind didn’t produce anything.

“How about...chocolate chips?”

“What are those?”

“You’ve never had a chocolate chip before.”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Let’s fix that, here you go,” Brent opened a door and pulled out a bag of little brown dots. Rose put his hand in and ate some. His eyes lit up and he shook the bag in to the bowl of batter. Brent had to stop him before the batter became 90% chocolate chips, and Rose snuck another handful of chocolate chips. Breakfast was loud and over far too soon in Rose’s opinion. Then Heron was pressing clothes in to his hands and telling him to change so that they could go to the poly station, or whatever he said it was.

Rose climbed in to the car, watching the world go by outside his window. There was a lot of talking and words that Rose didn’t understand at the station. They asked him a lot of questions.

_What’s your name?_ Red

_Is that your real name or a nick name?_ Nickname

_What’s your real name?_ 2318-1

_We’re not joking._ Neither am I.

_What’s your last name?_ What’s that?

_What’s your parents' name?_ I don’t have parents.

_Who were you living with?_ Zero.

_What was their actual name?_ Dr. Sanders

_Who else lived with you?_ Indigo, Blue, and Black was until...I don’t know how long ago it was. He was testing us and left us for 5 hours. I guess something happened then.

_What was he testing you over?_ Boring stuff. He called it OWL practice, but the cover said it was practice for the 8th grade FSA.

_How old are you?_ One.

_Be truthful._ I am!

_How old are you?_ You want me to say eleven, don’t you?

_Is that your real age?_ I guess?

_This is serious._ Okay.

_Did he ever harm you?_ No.

_Who did you live with before Dr. Sanders?_ No one. I’ve always lived with him.

The questions marched on and on and on. Finally they let him sit in the corner with some paper and crayons while they kept talking and talking.

At long last they went back to Brent and Heron’s house, where they ate and talked about things that made Rose laugh. Then Heron made a rectangle play music and they danced, and, after Rose asked them what they were doing, Heron put on a different song and showed him how to move his feet and arms in time with the music. Rose laughed and spun around, crashing in to one of the soft chairs.

Daffodil would love this. Maybe he could get a sword and charge in to the lab to free Daffodil.


	3. Chapter 3

Rose was so tired of questions. He wanted to go back to Brent and Heron’s house and blare music and dance to it and when he got tired sink in to one of the big soft chairs and just listen to the non-question-nes of the music. Today Brent said they were going back to the lab so Rose could show them where Alium, Daffodil, and Locus were. Rose repeated that he had no idea where Locus was, but Brent said they’d figure it out.

Rose leaned his head on the window and watched the world go by. They stopped in front of a squat building. Another car pulled up behind them and two police officers got out. Brent got out and talked to them for a minute, leaving Rose alone in the car because Heron had to go to someplace called work. The police officers walked up to the doors and Rose saw Zero answer it, talk for a minute, then Brent came back and led Rose up to the door. Zero’s eyes lingered too long on Rose, and he pushed himself against Brent.

“Where’s Indigo and Blue?” Brent prompted Rose.

“We were in the basement, through here,” Rose replied, leading the way carefully down the stairs. Zero followed.

“There’s only storage down here. You’re wasting your time,” he said.

“Like we said we’re just going to have a look around,” one of the police officers said. Rose reached up to the handle on the door to where they were kept. It stopped and didn’t let him open it. Rose jiggled it, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Unlock it, please,” one of the police officers said. Zero pulled out a key, put it in the handle, turned it, and pulled it out. Rose reached up again and the door swung open to the faces of Alium and Daffodil.

“Thumb!” “Blue!”

Rose hugged Daffodil to him.

“Who are you? Dr. Sanders said One escaped,” Alium said, looking between Brent and the police officers.

“I did! Thith ith Brent and I live with him. Theth are police officers and they’re getting you out!”

Alium looked between them again, “We’re leaving?”

Brent glanced to the police officers.

“Yeah, take the kids back to the station. We’ll finish up in here.”

“Are they going to ask more questions?” Rose asked.

“Probably, Red.”

Rose groaned, but he knew it would be better this time because his siblings were there.


	4. Chapter 4

“Heron?”

“Hey, how’d the investigation go?”

“We have three kids now.”

“...”

“You still there?”

“Yeah. They found three kids?”

“Two. They call themselves Two and Pinky. All three of them have claimed there’s a fourth, and the police are looking for him.”

“Something else up?”

“They look exactly like each other. I wouldn’t be surprised if this fourth kid looks exactly like them, too.”

“What’s the fourth kid’s name?”

“He could be Black, Four, or Middle depending on who you ask.”

“They’re sure its not three kids?”

“Yeah. Two called Red One and Pinky called Red Thumb. I think they all just have different names for each other.”

“Okay. I should get back to work before the manager notices. Talk later, right?”

“Right.”

“Love you,” Heron’s voice mixed with the hangup tone. Brent kept the phone on the side of his head for a second longer. The police had finished up surprisingly quickly, and now Red was running around the house showing Pinky around. Two was contentedly reading a dictionary on the couch. Questions buzzed around Brent's head, although he knew he should probably leave the investigation to the police. Still, Heron would probably want to ask, and he had less of a filter than Brent…

“Hey, Two?”

“What is it?” Two asked, lowering the book with his finger on some word starting with b.

“Do you mind if I ask you some questions?” “I don’t mind.” “Do you have any name other than Two?”

“Did One reffer to me as Word in your conversation? Or I guess he switched to calling us by colors. Indigo, then?”

“Sort of. People don’t really have numbers as names.”

“I’m under the impression most people don’t grow up in labs.”

“Yeah, that’s definitely true. Did Evan ever try to hurt you?”

Two got up and disappeared in to the nearest doorway, what had been the guest bedroom, with the dictionary. Brent let him go, feeling Two’s absence on the air even as Red and Pinky erupted in to laughter about something in another room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My inspiration is being a butt, so if anyone has ideas for where to go from here maybe they'll help fill the blank document that's supposed to be the next chapter with words.


	5. Chapter 5

Rose looked around. The huge cage swung precariously by a single chain over a giant hourglass that was halfway through its sand.

“So nice to see you again.”

“I ethcaped!” Rose shouted, throwing himself against the bars, which only made the cage swing with an ominous creek.

“Careful, Rose, wouldn’t want to break the hour glass. You have until it’s empty.”

“Until what?”

“So eager? Maybe Locust would like to tell you?”

Rose stared at the tiny form of Locust curled on to his side. He threw himself against the bars again and again-

Rose kicked himself out of the blankets. He lay panting on the rough carpet. Somehow both Alium and Daffodil were still asleep. He looked over at the alarm clock: 3:33 AM. He pulled himself back on to the bed and curled up on his side. His heart thumped along with the night. He tried gently grabbing Patton’s hand, but that didn’t help. Finally he got up and paced at 4 AM. He went in to the kitchen and got a glass of water. He sat on the sofa and sipped it, watching the small numbers on the tv slowly tick up. He started trying to get his counting to even seconds. The first attempt he got to 86 before the minute ticked up. The next try he got to 70. The next he got to 55. He fell back asleep before he perfected his counting.

*****

“Red? Hey, good morning, sleepy.”

Rose blinked blearily up at Heron and managed a mangled groan of dissent.

“Come on.”

“I’m up.”

“You’re not doing that trick again. Let me see you on your feet and going to the kitchen before I go get Two and Pinky.”

Rose groaned again, but pushed himself to a sitting position and stretched, drawing it out with several long yawns before pulling himself to his feet and shuffling towards the kitchen. A moment later Alium and Daffodil shuffled out in similar states of alertness, that is, they were both dead on their feet.

“What’s for breakfast?” Rose asked, finally noticing the yellowish-white disk and strips of red stuff Heron was tending to.

“Scrambled eggs and bacon. Had it before? It’s a breakfast staple.”

“Yes, but they looked very different.”

“Well, you probably saw it cooked,” Heron laughed.

“And a far inferior version.”

“Brent, stop embarrassing me in front of the kids,” Heron chuckled again and started moving the white stuff around as it turned more opaque and yellowish. A moment later he dumped the contents of the pan on to a plate and flipped the red sticks, which looked significantly more edible now. A few more minutes and they were seated at the table with plates of their own. Heron immediately started digging in.

“It’s still hot!” Brent said, seeing him just as a fork laden with eggs landed in Heron’s mouth. Heron’s eyes went wide and he grabbed a glass of water.

“Your food needs to come with warning labels.”

“You need to put common sense before food.”

Brent and Heron laughed, and Rose mustered laughter with them before breaking off a piece of bacon and putting eggs on it. Brent shot him a look and Rose blew on it for a few moments until they seemed cool enough before putting it in his mouth. It was still a bit too warm, but not bad.

“I muth thay your pancake thill ith the best thing you’ve made.”

“‘Pancake’ he says, as if he didn’t make the batter 50% chocolate,” Brent said with a smile.

“What’s a pancake?” Alium asked.

“Warm sugar bread,” Brent replied.

“They’re better than he makes them sound!” Rose interjected.

Brent, Heron, and Rose laughed at this, and Daffodil summoned a couple chuckles.

“What are we doing today?” Rose asked.

“Are we going to look for Middle?” Daffodil asked hopefully before either Brent or Heron could respond.

“Well, I have to go to work again,” Heron said, tapping the table.

“Uh, finding Middle is a job for the police, Pinky. I think we should just have a chill day at home. I’ll let you know as soon as I know anything, okay?”

“Okay,” Daffodil said, but Rose could see the disappointment he tried his best to conceal.

“Come on! Let’s go to the reading nook and draft plans for finding Black!” Rose and Daffodil were halfway down the hall before their chairs hit the floor, ignoring the calls of 'come back and finish your breakfast' and ‘just what do you think you’re doing?’, which Rose assured Daffodil meant nothing at all once they stopped.


	6. Chapter 6

Two set the dictionary down. He had no idea there were so many words. One and Three were still off planning something, and Two supposed he should join them, but at the moment he was just tired. He blinked at the clock even though the numbers meant nothing to him: 8:37 AM. He heard Brent cleaning the kitchen across the divider. What was to stop Two from just walking off? What if he just decided to leave and walked off?

Two glanced around. Brent’s head was just visible over the divider, bent down to look at something on the counter. The rest of the room was empty. Two got up, leaving the dictionary. He walked to the front door and slowly pushed down the handle. He pushed it open slowly, slipped out, and closed it just as carefully.

He started walking.

Brent and Heron’s house sat on an oval shaped street with one exit point and a set of mailboxes near the exit point. Two looked up at Brent and Heron’s house after he completed one loop, then slowly set off to do another. He completed five loops in total before he tired and slowly edged open the door. Three faces turned to him.

“Indigo!” “Cheek!” Twin voices called.

“Thee, I told you Indigo wath too thmart to get loth,” One said, turning to Brent.

“Yeah, I guess you were right.”

“I apologize for any undue concern I caused you.”

There was a pause.

“Thothe aren’t even word!” One complained, throwing his hands up. Two silently noted the action. He didn’t do that before.

“They are words, look them up,” Two said, pointing to the dictionary.

“Tell him thothe aren’t word,” One turned to Brent, ignoring the book.

“They are words. He said he’s sorry for making us worry.”

“Thatth much eathier to underthand.”

“Now that this ordeal has reached a conclusion, I would like to retire to the dictionary.”

“Wait,” Brent stopped him. Two stopped but refused to look at him. He knew what was undoubtedly written on Brent’s face: emotions he had seen written on Dr. Sanders’s face after One escaped. _After I failed._

“You made us all worry by leaving without telling us where you were going. Just let one of us know if you go for a walk or write a note and leave it on the coffee table, okay?" Brent asked.

Two blinked, then slowly looked up at Brent. His face looked...open. He didn’t know what emotion it was, but it didn’t look like Dr. Sanders’s.

“I will inscribe a notice,” Two whispered, then ducked in to the door of the bedroom.

“Thank you!” Brent called after him.

Two sat on the bed. His mind swam with the information. Slowly he leaned against the pillows, ignoring the dull throb in his head.

\--An Evolution of Notes--

I am walking. -Two

I am walking. -Two

I am walking. -Two

I am walking. -Logan

Roman and I are walking. -Logan

Me and Specs are going on a walk. -Roman

I am walking. -Logan

I am going to the library. -Logan

_I’m Four._

I am going to the library. I will be back by 11am. -Logan

Walking. -Roman

I am walking. -Logan

I am going to the library. I will be back by 6pm. I have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a water bottle with me. -Logan

I am walking. -Logan

I found a hiking trail. Can we go on it? -Logan

I found a dog park. I am going to see it. Patton is coming with me. We will be back by 10am. -Logan

heya! lolo found place for dogs to run around! be back by 10! -pat ps woof

Four and I are walking. -Logan

Walking -4

I am walking. -Logan

I am going to the library. I will be back by 11am. -Logan

Walking. -4

I am walking. -Logan

V and I are going on a hike. We have grilled cheese sandwiches with us, as well as water bottles. We will be back by dark. -Logan

Hiking w/ L. Have food+water-4

_Yeah_

_Not telling_

_Need a reason?_

Walking -4

I am walking. -Logan

Hey, you guys want to go on a picnic to celebrate our first meeting of Roman? -Heron (We can do something different if you want -Brent) A picnic would be splendid! -Roman picnic sounds great! -pat I am definitely not opposed to the idea. -Logan Sure-Virgil(4)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes in italics represent notes made in direct response to a spoken cue.


End file.
